focusing on positive change
Orb Solutions is a professional and personal development business. We specialise in leadership development, communication and conflict resolution skills, facilitation, and dispute resolution.
We are based in Wellington, New Zealand. We travel for work outside of Wellington. We also provide services such as coaching and supervision via video conferencing for people who are unable to meet in-person or prefer to meet in the comfort of their home or office environment.
Orb Solutions was established in 2007 by Ava Gibson. Simon Roughton joined in 2014.
Ava Gibson
areas of expertise
Leadership and personal coaching
Facilitation of group processes
Communication coaching & training
Mediation, conflict resolution, & restorative processes
Stakeholder & consumer engagement
Professional supervision
BACKGROUND
Throughout her career Ava has assisted individuals, groups and organisations in making positive change.
A skilled transformative coach, Ava is passionate about working with professional women to both thrive and succeed in their careers and personal lives. She supports women to identify their values, strengths, motivations and beliefs, and helps them to build and sustain personal practices to flourish. Other areas of her coaching practice are communication and conflict management skills, leadership development, career planning and wellbeing.
Ava is skilled at enabling people to understand themselves and others better, resolve conflict, and create more effective relationships. She coaches and trains people to have conversations that matter.
As a facilitator Ava assists people have important conversations with greater ease and confidence. She is known for her calm, non-judgemental and positive presence. She runs professional development groups and creates powerful environments for learning and change.
Ava is an accredited mediator who works with teams and organisations to resolve issues in the workplace. This includes providing confidential, impartial, informal and independent advice and resolution services for workplace issues for staff.. She is one of a few mediators who coach and assess potential mediators for the Resolution Institute. She is also an Arbitrator under Section 10 of the Education Act.
Ava originally trained and worked as a community social worker and counsellor. She was attracted to social work because of the difference you make to people’s lives at both the personal level and also at a wider structural or systems-based level. This combination of skills was an asset when she moved to establish a new student service at Victoria University. She worked with students and staff to identify and meet students’ needs and remove barriers at a structural level to create greater inclusion. Ava also drove the development of national best practice standards in the area of inclusive education for people with impairments within tertiary education. She received a Victoria Staff Excellence Award in recognition of her contributions to the sector.
Ava knows first-hand the challenges of building and leading a diverse team of people to work together and deliver exceptional service. An experienced manager, she led a team of paid and voluntary staff to deliver services, which consistently achieved high levels of customer satisfaction. Her leadership roles include CEO for LEADR NZ (Association of Dispute Resolvers) during a year of transition, as the Board and members worked through the process of integration.
Memorial for Rainbow Warrior at Matauri Bay, Northland
Ava is committed to ongoing learning. She uses research and techniques from positive psychology, the neuroscience of conversation and social interactions, NLP, conflict resolution, and solution-focused and strength-based methods. She uses these to help people change the way they think, feel and behave so that they can reach their goals and experience things differently.
Outside of work, you might find Ava hanging out with her family, walking her dog, or at a yoga or pilates class. A keen course junkie, you might meet her at a training. At home she may be trying out a new recipe, listening to a self-development podcast, reading or chilling in front of a movie.
QUALIFICATIONS
BSW (Hons) Massey University
Certificate in Supervision (Human Services) WelTec
Certificate in Disability and Higher Education, Lancashire University
ACCREDITATIONS
Certified Trainer in Everything DiSC, a personal assessment tool to help improve teamwork, communication, and productivity in the workplace.
Certified Coach in Conversational Intelligence®, with Dr Judith E Glasser and Creating WE Institute
Accredited Mediator and Family Dispute Resolution Provider with Resolution Institute, NMAS Accredited
Trained in Positive Neuroplasticity for building resilience and experiencing greater wellbeing and happiness, with Dr Rick Hanson
Certified NLP Master Practitioner and Certified Instructor of ‘Transforming Communication’ seminars, with Transformations International
Certified mBIT Coach
Approved Investing in Services for Outcomes Capability Mentor
NZQA Qualified Assessor, PACT
MEMBERSHIPS
Resolution Institute, NZAPP, International Ombudsmans’s Association.
CONTACT DETAILS
email: ava@orbsolutions.co.nz
phone: 0274 AVA ORB (0274 282 672)
Book a free introductory conversation on https://bookme.name/AvaGibson
Simon Roughton
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Facilitation
Conflict management coaching
Early resolution of complaints
Complaint management tools & tips
Mediation
Organisational culture change
Complaint process reviews
Background
Simon is passionate about facilitating and training in the area of early resolution of issues, concerns & complaints.
He is a skilled and experienced facilitator of group processes and dynamics allowing those present to focus on content and achieving intended outcomes.
Simon works across government ministry's' including Education, Social Development, Health, and MBIE. He also provides dispute resolution services as a contractor to independent organisations such as the Human Rights Commission, Real Estate Authority, and Privacy Commission. Simon provides training and supervision services to organisations, including Netsafe and ACC. He also facilitates dispute resolution skill training for consumer facing, commercial entities such as banks and insurance providers.
He recently completed an independent five year review of Financial Dispute Resolution Services' scheme as required by Ministry of Consumer Affairs. This review was to assess the scheme's effectiveness and efficiency against the benchmark standards for dispute resolution organisations.
Nominated for Mediator of the Year in the 2020 & 2023 NZ Law Awards, Simon is a skilled and experienced NMAS accredited mediator. He regularly coaches participants on the Resolution Institute five-day mediation training workshops., and is one of a small pool of NZQA qualified assessors who assess candidates suitability to become accredited mediators on behalf of the Resolution Institute.
Simon's life work has been involved either directly or indirectly in education. He taught and held management positions in primary and secondary education. He also spent eight years running a Hall of Residence for 312 first year university students. There was never a dull moment with any of those roles! He provided governance training to Boards of Trustees, on behalf of School Trustees Association. He is uniquely placed to assist with education related disputes with a lived experience within the education sector
A cornerstone of Simon's values is to make a meaningful contribution to society, whether that is through work or voluntary activity. He is a Justice of the Peace, and was elected onto the Wellington JP council. His main portfolio was developing and facilitation of professional development for JP's. For two years he was one of a small group of Judicial Justice of the Peace which required him to act in a judicial capacity on Wellington and Porirua District Courts.
Interpersonal conflict sometimes requires an independent, neutral professional to assist in facilitating the process. Simon is trained, skilled, and experienced to assist.
QUALIFICATIONS
M.Ed Leadership, Dip Tchg.
ACCREDITATIONS
Fellow (Resolution Institute)
NMAS accredited Resolution Institute mediator
Trained CINERGY Conflict Management Coach
NZQA PACT Qualified Assessor
MEMBERSHIPS
Resolution Institute https://resolution.institute/web/default-nz.aspx
Contact details
email: simon@orbsolutions.co.nz
phone: +64 21 349 776
If you prefer, send a text or email with your contact details and Simon will call you back.
